The Covid Quilts: Part 1

The first half of the year has been an unusual one for us all.   When lockdown finally happened I had already witnessed my partner, Nicky,  trying to plan for the oncoming storm for at least 4 weeks; I had read the stories of the overwhelmed hospitals in Northern Italy; my brother was locked down in Southern Spain; it was clear it was going to be bad.

 

Many of you will know that Nicky works in Cardiology and specifically Echocardiology (ultrasounds of the heart).  The procedure is a 40 minute, intimate scan that is on a par to cuddling the patient.  In the run up to lockdown she told tales of scanning coughing patients dressed only in a plastic apron and gloves because although they were symptomatic they were undiagnosed because the test results were taking 6 days to come back; at that point the hospital would not let staff wear masks unless there was a confirmed diagnosis.  The guidelines on PPE kept changing and it was a constant battle for her and her team.  She was fitted for the special masks that were for use on the Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU) and began to talk about 12 hour shifts working around the clock.  The hospital was adding extra beds to ITU and converting operating theatres to additional ITU wards; work started on the Nightingale Hospital at the NEC.  I know it was tough on her kitting up (they call it donning and doffing) and going onto the wards dressed in the full gear; she stopped talking about what she saw.

And what was I doing?  I was working from home (and then furloughed) for the sewing machine distributors of Pfaff and Husqvarna Viking that I provide technical support for.  My three days a week at Hereford College of Art went onto zoom tutorials and seminars trying to reassure students that it was all going to be okay.  Whilst this was really important, it was not the life and death experience that Nicky was going through. 

It was scary.  I felt impotent.

I am a quilter; so I made a quilt

I found myself chanting the message ‘Stay Safe’ whenever she or I went out.  On the back of the earlier Recovery Quilts it seemed a logical step to make a Covid Quilt saying that.  I wanted to sew something that was as positive and joyous as possible and hang it in as public a place.

The first quilt was made very quickly and I taped it into the front window so people walking past could see it.  Technically its unfinished as its still a quilt top only.  I will admit that it was actually sellotaped in place.  The second, more considered version is quilted and hangs in my sister’s front window on the busy street in Hove she lives on.  Annoyingly her quilt is much better than mine.

Processions: Making the letters and tassels

So the plan had always been that we would have letters spelling out the phrase ‘Smile, it confuses your enemy’ individually decorated by the women.  These letters would then be placed on a digitally printed cloth featuring the smiles of 100 women that the women saw as role models or aspirational figures.

I had printed out the letters on paper to use as templates.  We cut them out and then the women choose letters.  Artichoke, organisers of the Processions march had asked for the suffragette colours of Violet, Green and White to be used.  I had bought a load of fabric in those colours and let the women choose what colour their letter might be.  They could decorate the letter however they wished…..and some really went to town with appliqué fabrics, jewels and chains.

Women hard at in in Holy Trinity, Shirebrook

So on some of the workshop session women were working on their letters whilst others were making wrapped cords that would be eventually be made into tassels that would form a fringe along the bottom of the banner or large tassels for the side poles.  The photo below shows the Rev Karen in action on a Pfaff Passport 2.0 sewing machine zigzagging strips of fabric to make wrapped cords.

Young ProspectUS

I worked on a lovely project organized by Somerset Art Works at Taunton Deane Pupil Referral Unit last week.  These are pupils who are not in main stream education for a variety of reasons. The plan was to give a basic introduction to sewing machines and how their in-built stitches can be used to build up decorative surfaces. 

The emphasis of the workshop was how simple stitch techniques could be used to build up more complex surfaces that could then be turned, if the student wanted it, into a finished product.  After a safe practice demonstration students started using the machines.  The lovely guys at Pfaff had lent me a couple of machines and I bought mine as well and we worked all of the machines hard.  The plan was for students to just stay with me for a half day but one student really got into it and stayed all day making an embroidered purse and then a bespoke make up bag.  This was seen as a great success as she often struggles to stay in school for a long period.

I also bought with me a micro tag gun was not really used as much as I expected.  It’s a very quick way to apply sequins and whilst there was much discussion about then they weren’t really used on the final pieces.  They were however used to make felt ‘camouflage’ fabric with a student with an interest in the military.  This was then further embellished with camouflage sequins that I had bought some time ago but had never found the right project to use them on….until last week!

A big thanks to the teams at SAW, Taunton Deane and VSM UK ltd for their help in making this happen

This is the project blog.  https://youngprospectus.wordpress.com/